New executive editor named at Hartford Courant
NEW HAVEN — Helen Bennett, editor of the New Haven Register, has been hired as executive editor of the Hartford Courant.
Bennett, who has also overseen other Hearst Connecticut Media Group publications, including Torrington’s Register-Citizen and The Middletown Press, began working at the New Haven Register in 1996.
“I am very excited about taking on a new challenge and very proud of all that Hearst Connecticut Media Group has accomplished as a news team,” Bennett said Tuesday.
The Courant’s previous executive editor, Andrew Julien, announced last month he was leaving the role to serve as executive editor of the New York Daily News, a publication also owned by the Courant’s parent company, Tribune Publishing.
Representatives from the Courant did not respond Tuesday for requests for comment on Bennett’s hiring.
Staff members at the Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper, were informed in an email Tuesday of the hiring.
Wendy Metcalfe, editorin-chief at HCMG, said:
“We are grateful for the contribution Helen made to journalism in this important community, and the team, during her time with us.”
The search for the next managing editor of the New Haven Register has started.
In 2016, Bennett was named executive editor of then-Digital First Media’s Connecticut Group of newspapers, which included the New Haven Register, the Register-Citizen, The Middletown Press, Connecticut Magazine and several weekly publications.
Hearst Connecticut Media Group acquired the group of publications in 2017.